RAIL staff are threatening to call a strike after a colleague was sacked for telling angry passengers why they were being served “disgusting” food.

Catering crew leader Mark Doughty was fired by East Coast because he revealed a staff shortage and a broken boiler meant they could not provide first-class customers with a full cooked breakfast on the early-morning Edinburgh-London train.

Bosses accused Mr Doughty, an employee for nearly 14 years, of bringing the company into disrepute.

Members of the RMT union are now being balloted for industrial action to demand their colleague’s reinstatement.

Mr Doughty, 39, from Gilmerton, Edinburgh, claimed it had been known in advance that the 5.48am service on September 29 from Waverley to King’s Cross was going to be one member of staff short because of a mix-up over holidays, but then the chef called in sick, reducing the catering crew to just four.

He later learned from an email that the train had a broken boiler – meaning the crew had no hot water and could not served cooked breakfasts.

Instead, travellers on the service were offered paninis with bacon or scrambled egg and roast tomatoes.

Mr Doughty said: “The passengers were not happy.

One member of staff was in tears as a result

Mark Doughty

"The passenger who complained said the bacon panini was disgraceful – to put it politely.

"It tasted and looked disgusting.”

He added: “They were annoyed because they were not getting what they were paying for.

"Some took it out on the staff.

"One member of staff was in tears as a result.

“I explained it would not have made any difference if the chef had turned up because the broken boiler meant we could not serve them the food they would normally get.”

Mr Doughty said staff shortages were frequent and East Coast had been aware of the broken boiler the week before.

The company told Mr Doughty he had “behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional manner by engaging in a conversation with customers which undermined the reputation of East Coast and the East Coast management team”.

An East Coast spokesman said: “This is a internal matter, and there is nothing further for us to add at this time.”